When I meet Alessandro Sartori a little over a year ago, the first thing that strikes me, under the searing sun on the shadeless rooftop of Shanghai’s Middle House hotel on a 90-degree day, is that the Zegna artistic director is clad head to toe in black. It’s not entirely out of the ordinary in an industry where often dogmatic designers can be easily caricatured by their uniforms (Karl Lagerfeld’s high-collared, heavily starched shirts, Yohji Yamamoto’s omnipresent trilby). But curiously, for Sartori, his choice of dress is neither a costume nor a direct reflection of the aesthetic of the 115-year-old Italian brand that he has led since 2016. “It helps me to think,” says the 58-year-old designer, whose Instagram bio declares, “I am a colourist but I always wear black.”

The second thing that makes an impression is how composed Sartori is—remarkably Zen even—mere hours before a major show. He is curious and thoughtful, carving out time to explore during work trips like this one, and he’s rarely without his Leica M10. On this particular afternoon, he is marvelling at the post-pandemic sartorial shift in the region, as witnessed on a recent flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong. “Before Covid, it was all loud logos and even louder garments,” he says. “I was sitting there watching, and people around me were wearing Arc’teryx, wearing Zegna, wearing monochrome, and wearing technical shoes with suits. And I said, ‘Where are we? Is it New York or London?’ ” There’s also little hint of big designer ego: When I suggest that perhaps he is underestimating the impact of Zegna on those changing tastes, as it was the first luxury brand to establish a boutique in mainland China, back in 1991, he demurs.

A Company Man, by Design

But make no mistake, he’s every inch a company man. Sartori’s ties to Zegna run deep. He joined in 1989 as a recent graduate of Milan’s Istituto Marangoni, working as a menswear designer. In 2003, he became the creative director of Z Zegna, which targeted a younger customer with more modern sensibilities. He remained in that role, firmly establishing the diffusion line’s identity, until 2011, when he was named artistic director of Paris-based Berluti, to which his command of colour was well suited. He assumed Zegna’s top creative post five years later. Since then, he has been refining his vision for clothing that, despite the brand’s rather rigid past, looks like nothing else on the market today—fervent efforts from copycats be damned.

As the fall-winter 2025 lineup now hitting stores and the recently revealed spring-summer 2026 collection demonstrate, his is not a pin-sharp, wrinkle-free interpretation of luxury but a far more soulful approach that encourages men to blend cherished wardrobe pieces with fresh acquisitions over time.

Against Dictates, For Real Life

“I’m watching how my clients are styling, living, travelling, thinking, and working,” Sartori tells me not long after presenting his latest collection. “I need to be always plugged-in. It’s very important to be into your own community because today in fashion you can’t dictate anything any longer. It is now about offering a full proposal with meaning and being able to surprise in a good way. If you think you can dictate by pushing products that are overdesigned, through blind trust, you will go nowhere because those years are gone.”

If there was an aha moment for Sartori, it was the fall-winter 2021 collection. Designed at the height of the pandemic, the elegantly supple clothes made clear that the designer was in tune with his customers and was charting a new course for Zegna. The finishing touch: the momentous dropping of “Ermenegildo” from the brand’s name to better align with the stock-ticker symbol, ZGN, on the occasion of its I.P.O.

“While many wondered how to approach fashion during such a seismic event, Alessandro was more than ready to meet the moment,” says stylist Julie Ragolia, a longtime collaborator. “Clothes are the closest things we hold to our bodies, to our hearts. Deciding to work entirely in cashmere for that collection was bold, but also precise. He built at once a sense of armour and comfort at a time when people needed that most from their wardrobe. Understanding that link has always been Alessandro Sartori’s science. But being able to express this through the medium of film [in the absence of runway shows] allowed a more widespread audience to witness the brilliance of how his mind works.”

It’s a science that many a brand is doing its darnedest to study. Imitators abound, and the number of riffs I saw on the best-selling elasticised Triple Stitch sneakers (a $1,500-plus gateway buy, prominently featured on Succession) and moccasin loafers at both the Pitti Uomo trade show and in Milan showrooms could justify keeping several intellectual-property attorneys on retainer.

But the fact is, no one is doing what Sartori is doing. Perhaps not since Giorgio Armani shook up the industry with his fluid tailoring in the 1980s has there been such a sustained, singular vision in menswear, though Ragolia cites Rick Owens as another directional, influential creator. “And Thom Browne revealed the ankle, changing tailoring forever,” she adds. “But Alessandro Sartori, he changed the way people dress as a mindset. That’s an impact that is incalculable.”

Cars, Colour, and Control

When I catch up with Sartori via Zoom on a recent summer evening, he is en route to a dinner with his car club, Oca Rossa, in the northern Italian countryside. He insists on pulling over to send a photo of his ride, a 1972 Porsche 911 Targa. It’s just one vintage automobile in a collection so impressive that he created Milano Garage to house it, then invited other discerning collectors to rent space there. Cars also present Sartori with another opportunity to experiment with hue. “In order to enjoy colours, I need to be hiding behind the screen,” he says, or in this case, behind the wheel. “My car tonight is signal orange, which is pretty strong.” He, on the other hand, is all in black.

Before he had keys to a red 1972 Lancia Fulvia HF, a bronze 1981 Porsche 911 Turbo, and a blue 1965 Ford Mustang Fastback 289, a young Sartori used to tool around this same terrain on his bicycle, in the shadow of the Zegna wool mill. The aptly named Sartori was born in Trivero, a stone’s throw from Zegna HQ, to a mother who had an immeasurable influence on his future vocation: She was a dressmaker, and he would often accompany her on Saturday outings to purchase fabrics. “When I was 7, 8, 9, I remember cycling around those villages and passing in front of the Villa Zegna and the wool mill,” he says. “And from the gate of the Casa Zegna, it was possible to see inside the place and some of the beauty. That got me dreaming. But at that time I didn’t know it was Zegna. I just loved the place.” One can’t help but get the sense that his career was a bit preordained, particularly when taking into account how textiles are woven into Zegna’s D.N.A.

Unlike most fashion houses (Loro Piana being a notable exception), Zegna operates five dedicated state-of-the-art mills. Its origins, in fact, lie in textile manufacturing, and that expertise in raw materials remains at the heart of all the brand’s enterprises. Sartori meets weekly with his team to discuss the latest technologies and determine which fabrics are required for which garments, whether it’s an airy silk-linen blend or a proprietary waffle cloth that combines 50 percent recycled paper gathered from magazines and newspapers with 50 percent cotton. And then there are the ultralight leathers. One particularly innovative look from spring-summer 2026 is a brown and cream plaid jacket that visually reads as a cashmere-linen blend but is in fact knitted from thin strips of leather.

Such lightness of materials was well suited to Dubai, where Zegna presented the collection in June, leaving a gaping hole in the Milan Fashion Week schedule (the brand typically closes out the event). The show wasn’t a mere replay of designs previously introduced in Europe, a common publicity move for brands, but a full-scale unveiling that saw the entire Zegna team decamp for several weeks to one of its major markets. “The collection went straight from the atelier to Dubai without any editing,” says Sartori. “The full team, 51 people, 17 of them tailors.”

Even when not on the road, Sartori understands the importance of creating an immersive experience, often allowing guests time to walk around the sets and to see and feel the clothes postshow. “The Zegna runway shows have grown over the years in their scale, scope, and spectacle, with truly awe-inducing, cinematic treatments executed to jaw-dropping effect,” says Bruce Pask, senior director of men’s fashion at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. “There is always a vital, fundamental idea at the center of each visual concept that absolutely underscores and amplifies the core message and meaning of the collection.” Past shows have featured mountains of cashmere fibers and linen-clad models weaving through stalks of flax. The Dubai event was no exception. Zegna transformed the city’s opera house into a desert oasis complete with sand dunes, local flora, and a sun-bleached palette that echoed the clothing, which had an intentionally lived-in feel. Sartori went heavy on layering and monochromatic pairings (think sets over suits). He also threw out the rule book on seasonality.

“The clash between seasons is part of [the vision], the idea of accumulating, of layering, and of stratification,” says Sartori, attributing his approach to his habit of working on more than one collection at a time rather than making an abrupt shift every six months.

The collection’s technical achievement lay in Sartori’s innovative take on summer suiting, for which he developed extraordinarily lightweight linen garments through advanced construction methods that eliminated traditional linings while maintaining structural integrity. Slipper-thin loafers and bare feet kept things light, and even his signature banded-collar Il Conte jacket was made ever so slightly oversize, creating a more relaxed appearance. Eventually, the desert neutrals gave way to buttercream, chartreuse, oxblood, burnt orange, and lavender, while tunics and shorts were paired with tailoring. Sartori, the self-professed man in black, took his bow in a relatively pale, grey ensemble for a change alongside singer-songwriter James Blake, who provided the music.

All Roads Lead Back to Oasi Zegna

Despite the spectacular destination shows, for Sartori and Zegna, all roads lead back to the Biellese Alps—specifically, a nearly 40-square-mile reforestation project and nature preserve known as Oasi Zegna, which Ermenegildo Zegna had the foresight to set aside for conservation in the 1930s, and which today remains a touchstone for the brand. Over the past nine decades, the company has planted more than 500,000 trees, sowing the seeds for the sustainable ethos that guides all things Zegna. That means traceability, from crop to garment (with full journey details for its Oasi cashmere accessible via Q.R. code hangtags), reliance on 100 percent renewable energy in the U.S. and Europe, and an enduring awareness that a great wardrobe, like a forest, is built over time, not in one fell swoop. “We are designing for a man that is collecting. We’re giving values to the garments, blending season after season, as a normal man does with his own wardrobe and products,” says Sartori. “We want to create a collection that is timeless in the quality, in the design, and in the aesthetic.”

The Zegna customer chooses his acquisitions with care, and the same can be said of Sartori and his collaborators, many of whom have been in his circle for a decade or more. Julie Ragolia, who has styled the shows and a variety of the brand’s campaigns for several years, met Sartori in 2014. “I think we had seen what each other was doing and felt a certain like-mindedness, and I remember having had the most incredible conversation about art, fashion, and culture,” she says. Not long after, Sartori invited her to style the Berluti shows in Paris, and when he returned to Zegna, he asked her to follow. This fall will mark 10 years that the two have worked together.

With a far less dictatorial approach than many of his peers, Sartori is more interested in how Zegna’s customers live and interact with their purchases, whether they are cool 20-somethings in Tokyo or chic septuagenarians in Toronto. I witnessed this approach firsthand in Shanghai when actor Mads Mikkelsen, then 58, alongside Gen Z actor Leo Wu, managed to move nearly $10 million worth of Zegna merchandise in a single hour, all via WeChat live stream. Sartori also takes a global perspective, picking up references from all corners. “I watch everything, and I see everything, but I don’t design for one specific place in the world,” he says. For him, it is more a matter of style, values, and supporting a customer who is conscious about what they are buying, how it is made, and how it will fit into not only their lifestyle but also their existing wardrobe. Evolution and a certain continuity are key—chasing trends is not.

That regard for agelessness and placelessness is also reflected in the casting for shows and ad campaigns. In addition to a span of generations and ethnicities, it’s not uncommon to spot a few women in the mix—though Sartori has no plans to do women’s suiting anytime soon. “No, no, no, it is not a sign of things to come,” he says. “I love to design for men, but I think that women can easily borrow garments from the boyfriend, the partner, the father, the husband. Because those pieces are also good for women with the right dose, so maybe one jacket, a beautiful piece of knitwear. And I like offering a vision of [that] woman. I think it’s very interesting.” Mikkelsen has been a brand fixture for several years, having walked in shows and fronted campaigns, the most recent being spring-summer 2025. But it was the choice of 60-something entrepreneur and famed watch collector Auro Montanari (a.k.a. John Goldberger to legions of horology aficionados who follow him online) that caught the attention of the Financial Times and had social media buzzing. When Zegna approached him about a shoot, Sartori recalls, “He said, ‘Ale, I’m not a model, I’m a doer.’ ” Montanari also made the journey to Dubai, thrilling 40 watch collectors, both locals and V.I.P.s flown in from around the world, who were treated to a talk by the expert.

“Alessandro is an incredibly gifted, experimental, and intuitive designer,” says Saks and Neiman’s Pask, noting Sartori’s rare combination of creativity and pragmatism: His timely embrace of sportswear led the century-old institution to evolve beyond its more traditional sartorial history. While profits for the Zegna Group, which also includes Thom Browne and Tom Ford, slid slightly in 2024, the Zegna brand’s revenues have grown steadily, reaching about $2.2 billion last year. The annual earnings report makes for interesting reading during a time when both LVMH and Kering have taken significant hits while brands such as Brunello Cucinelli—which also places a priority on sourcing, ethical production, and transparency—have seen sales rise. Whether the customer was already in search of sustainable options is almost inconsequential, as Sartori and company, never far from their roots, have made a priority of amplifying the values of Ermenegildo Zegna.

Still, Sartori must sell a dream, albeit a wearable one, and he continues to explore that realm between the classic and the avant-garde, to the delight of modern men—and a few women—of style and substance. Ragolia recalls a recent encounter at a gallery opening in New York, for which she donned Zegna. “I was standing near a friend who was talking to one of the artists, who kept staring at me,” she says. Eventually, the artist approached, touched Ragolia’s sleeve, and asked, wide-eyed, who had made her jacket. “When I told him it was Zegna, he continued to marvel over the fabric, the weft and weave, the colour. In a crowded gallery, where his works lined the walls, this artist was talking about Zegna.”

Sartori may be creating a new benchmark for what a large luxury brand can be, but he references the advice to “buy what you like,” now a standard line whether you’re in the market for an artwork or a pair of trousers. “It seems simple, but it isn’t,” he says. “Customers in fashion have been around dictates too long. Now it’s time to go personal, to feel yourself, to build your wardrobe from listening and watching but in the end make your own decisions, because fashion and garments only really have a meaning when they are your garments, designed to make yourself better. I don’t want you to be somebody else.”